Stage 1 - July 8: St Omer - Boulogne sur Mer,
194.5 km

Dudufication Plan For Tour De France Succeeds

Dudufication was the name of the game on Stage One of the Tour from
Saint-Omer to Boulogne-sur-Mer. Although the day started rainy and miserable
with squalls blowing in from the English Channel, once again the morning
rain cleared up in the afternoon.

Dudufication means that Jacky "Dudu" Durand (La Francaise De Jeux) managed
to pull off his patented early break and thus, dudufy the 2001 Tour De
France. Durand had a long and once again rewarding day on the roads of
the Tour De France. Sometimes a buffoon and sometimes a hero, today Jacky
managed to get away after 55km. Chasing behind was Christophe Oriol and
when hard charging Durand stopped to answer the call of nature, Oriol
caught him. All day, Dudu had his eyes on only one thing; the dots. The
dots, the dots of the polka dot jersey. When Durand pursued the day's
stage profile, the experienced eyes of the 34 year old rider spotted those
two 4th cat climbs late in the race and remembered the day 10 years ago
when he won his first pro bouquet on the same windy, up and down Pas-de-Calais
roads. Some riders see the parcours and say "ugh"; Dudu saw today's stage
and saw dots.

And after all, what better rider should be stopped at the level crossing
in Rang-du-Fliers than Dudu? After 102km, the break was seven minutes
ahead of the peloton and they were stopped at the closed gates in Maresquel
as a SNCF diesel train lumbered past. It was a scene reminiscent of the
real old-time Tour De France, when the grimy, wool jersey clad "forcats
de la route" had to wait for coal-fired freights to pass in the broiling
summer sun. But no panic; Jean-Marie LeBlanc just popped out of his red
Lancia, took the time split that Dudu and Oriol had been delayed by, just
like UCI rules say and once the gates opened, the chasing peloton had
to take 5 (actually 2 minutes) so that they didn't gain any time on the
two front runners.

Finally for Dudu, it was mission accomplished; he won both Cat 4 sprints
and grabbed the dots; that coveted Polka Dot jersey but zut alors, he
and Oriol were finally chomped by the hungry peloton 15km from Boulogne.
From there on in, it was a gnarly, up and down headwind run in along the
coast to the seafront finish on Boulevard Sainte-Beuve. With the Stage
1 bouquet up for grabs, the much criticized, smaller French teams like
Bonjour and Jean Delatour decided that now victory would be theirs! These
ambitious dreams culminated in a final escape by Laurent Brochard (Jean
Delatour). The '97 World Champ had a 50 meter lead with 3km to go. Head
bobbing, mullet flying, "Broche" gave it his all and with the Fast downhill
finish he was looking good as he passed under the 1km to go kite.

But zut alors encore as the sprinters wound it up, Broche was swallowed
up like a morsel of trash by a hungry seagull with 500 meters to go. A
wild, woolly, wide open downhill sprint saw Maillot Jaune Christophe Moreau
(Festina) bouncing like ninepins just behind the front row of sprinters,
where monster man Erik Zabel (Deutsche Telekom) powered down the right
side of the road like a middle linebacker, easily winning the sprint in
front of World Champion Romans Vainsteins.

"The last 10km was tough with the head and side winds," Zabel declared
post-race, "But I had (Deutsche Telekom teammates) Vinokourov and Wesemann
to help me. I didn't want to start the sprint too early."

Zabel timed his sprint to perfection for the win in Boulogne-sur-Mer,
which once again put him in his habitual Tour De France vestments, the
Green Points jersey, while his fellow podium dweller Jacky Durand will
don his dots. Despite the last kilometre bounces, Christophe Moreau (Festina)
maintains his grasp on Tour leadership.

"I want to keep the Maillot Jaune until the mountains," said Moreau.
"That's the plan."

For newly crowned Italian champ Daniele Nardello (Mapei-Quick Step)
and American Jonathan Vaughters (Credit Agricole), todays stage didn't
go according to plan. Nardello Crashed heavily on a tight bend with 30
km to go and lost 12 minutes, while Vaughters unshipped his chain just
as the field split and ended up losing 5'45 by the stage finish.